The modern liberalism practiced in the United States has never been able to stand competition. Niether did the communism practiced in the USSR for most of the 20th century. In the latter, there was always the risk that people would start noticing that free countries were prospering far more, had more and better food, more and better goods at all kinds of stores, drove more and better cars on better roads, had better hospitals and schools etc. The only way communism could survive, was to keep people believing it was best when it wasn't. And that was done by isolating the Soviet people from the outside world so they wouldn't know any better.
The same has been true of modern liberals in America. Their only means of survival has been to present a common, unified front of advocates, spokesmen who would constantly tell the people that liberalism was working, and that conservatism was not only unproductive but evil. From liberal politicians to newspapers to TV to schools, the message had to be delivered with 100% consistancy: Liberalism and the Nanny State were the ONLY fair way of running the country, and anyone who disagreed was greedy, heartless, subhuman, and in particular NOT TO BE LISTENED TO AT ALL. The idea of a lauded, trusted, firmly-on-the-plantation liberal figure departing in any way from the party line, was unthinkable. The very rare ones who actually did that, were either cocooned and ignored (Zell Miller) or heartily despised, excoriated, and punished (Joe Lieberman).
But now one such figure - the leading Democrat candidate for the Presidency, who cannot possibly be either ignored or ostracized - has strayed off the reservation. Barack Obama has actually implied the idea that blacks should take responsibility for their own lives, work out their own problems, and rise to prosperity without the help of government or the racial hatred that has characterized so much public discourse involving blacks (See "Affirmative Action", "Black Liberation Theology", etc.). And he was APPLAUDED for it by his heavily-minority audience when he did so!
The media can't ignore their darling, the extreme-liberal, leading Dem candidate for the Presidency in an election less than six months away. And they can hardly condemn him. That leave Option 3: Ignore what he said and pray nobody outside the room noticed it. A disgusting comment whispered by Jesse Jackson into a live mike, helped this process, diverting attention onto Jackson and away from Obama for that one critical speech.
Obama's speech was a crack in the facade of liberalism, that must have given the party bosses nightmares. Hopefully he will make many more such departures from the standard liberal line, though he is a long way from making the kind of pronouncements that then-President JFK did on Dec. 14, 1962, to the Economic Club of New York. It's a place the current extreme-left bosses hopes he'll never go.
Last edited by Little-Acorn; 07-16-2008 at 11:37 AM.
"The social contract exists so that everyone doesn’t have to squat in the dust holding a spear to protect his woman and his meat all day every day. It does not exist so that the government can take your spear, your meat, and your woman because it knows better what to do with them." - Instapundit.com